TiVo Roamio OTA Review

Cons / It can only capture OTA content or streamed video from services you have subscriptions to.

Verdict / The TiVo Roamio OTA has multiple tuners and 1TB of storage, making it a decent option for a family, though it is somewhat limited in the variety of content it can record.

Just because you don’t have a cable or satellite television subscription doesn’t mean you’re forever doomed to be unable to rewatch your favorite shows and movies whenever you want. Despite only being able to record content from an antenna or streaming video services, the TiVo Roamio OTA is powerful enough to keep up with your household.

This digital video recorder has a 1TB internal hard drive, which is standard. It can record up to 150 hours of just HD content or up to 1000 hours of standard-definition content. It also has four tuners, so multiple people in your household can record shows simultaneously. It can also stream to multiple rooms in your house, letting everyone watch what they want when then want.

If you’re worried about what your little ones might access, the unit has parental control settings you can adjust. You can also easily schedule recordings for any show and even skip commercials when you watch recorded content.

Unlike most other DVR recorders, the Roamio OTA doesn’t require a subscription, which saves you money. As for the kinds of TV shows or movies it can access and record, it is limited to over-the-air (OTA) content. It can also access video and audio streaming services if you have subscriptions to them. However, it cannot access satellite or cable content.

The Roamio OTA has a decent variety of ports, so you can connect as you need. It features a USB port for external storage, as well as other ports, including ones for HDMI, Ethernet, coax and composite video. However, the DVR recorder itself is one of the largest on our lineup. It measures 14.2 inches wide, 7.4 inches deep and 2 inches tall.

The DVR comes with a full selection of direct and indirect customer support resources from TiVo. If you want to contact a representative directly, you can do so via email, phone or live chat – team members are easy to talk to and provide you with any information you need. TiVo also has a variety of guides and how-to resources available on its website, so you have all the information you need to troubleshoot something or learn more about your DVR.

Summary

Despite being designed to only record over-the-air content, the TiVo Roamio OTA DVR has the capacity to record content from video and audio streaming services as well. It has four tuners, which let you record multiple shows at the same time, and it store them on the internal 1TB hard drive. It has all of the necessary ports and is backed by great customer service, making it a decent option if you want to get away from a cable or satellite subscription.